Currently, pharmacy printers print information about a medicine on a medicine label for distribution to the consumer along with the corresponding medicine. Often, the label is designed to be fixed to packaging for the medicine. The medicine label is generated after the consumer orders the medicine and prior to when the consumer receives the medicine. Systems for printing a medicine label and related advisory information are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,849 entitled “Method and system for printing a combination pharmaceutical label and directed newsletter”; U.S. Pat. No. 6,240,394 entitled “Method and apparatus for automatically generating advisory information for pharmacy patients”; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,067,524 “Method and system for automatically generating advisory information for pharmacy patients along with normally transmitted data” all of which name Baxter Byerly as an inventor, and the teachings of which are all incorporated herein by reference.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,729,666 describes conventional processes for generating, in a computer associated with a printer, print files containing font header data enabling the printer to render fonts, and then the computer transmitting the print file to the printer for printing.
A medicine prescription label may include patient name, doctor name, drug expiration date, the name of the drug, the manufacturer of the drug, instructions for taking the drug, the quantity in the bottle, the number of refills, the date of fill, the day the prescription was written, history or medical record number, the prescription number, the name of the pharmacy, the address of the pharmacy, the phone number of the pharmacy, cautions or warnings.
Acronyms
NDC is an acronym for National Drug Code.
DCC is an acronym for Drug Classification Code.
CS is used herein as an acronym for “Computer System”.
CHR is an acronym for Catalina Health Resources.
POS is an acronym for Point of Sale.
FDA is an acronym for Food and Drug Administration.
CID is an acronym for Consumer IDentification. CID and PID are synonymous in this application.
XML is an acronym for Extensible Markup Language.
Definitions
A CID means any identifier that can be used to identify a consumer that can be scanned, read, or otherwise entered into a computer.
A “consumer” means a person or family or group of people that use the same CID when purchasing or filling a medicinal prescription in a store, such as a pharmacy store.
A POS is an area where a consumer engages in transactions with a retail store, such as a pharmacy store.
NDCs are codes associated with drugs. Preferably, NDCs are the unique 11-digit 3-segment number that identifies the labeler/vendor, product, and trade package size of a medication listed under Section 510 of the U.S. Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
DCCs are codes associated with medications based upon the medication's effects on human beings such that several medications may have the same DCC.
Individual transaction data includes but is not limited to data conveying some or all of following information: time of transaction, date of transaction, CID, individual transaction ID, pharmacy ID, product purchased, price of product purchases (list price and/or actual price paid), payment instrument type, payment instrument identifier.
Pharmacy, in this application, refers to a retail store in which medicines are provided to consumers.
Database, in this application, means data organized in some format in a computer memory that can be read and written by an associated CS. Such a concept is also referred to as a database management system. Examples of databases include commercial database products such as Microsoft Access, SQL server, and any set of files stored in computer memory that can be accessed by an associated CS.
Network means communication channels (wired or wireless) and protocols that a set of computers can use to exchange and interpret information. Such channels include dial up telephone data connections, private digital corporate network, and the Internet. Such protocols include real connection modem protocols and virtual connection packet protocols like TCP/IP.
A drug monograph is a written description of a drug or medicine associated with an NDC. For example, a monograph can include information such as, introduction, summary, pharmacology, pharmaco-kinetics, FDA approved indications, off-label uses, dosage and administration, adverse effects, overdose, safety data, contraindications, warnings, precautions, drug interactions, efficacy measures, cost comparison, clinical trials, conclusions, recommendations, references, supplied, and research. A drug monogram contains text, which may be stored in a text computer file.
A MedGuide is a guideline containing FDA-approved patient information associated with a DCC. For example, a MedGuide can include information such as, important information a patient should know about the drug, what the drug is, who should not take the drug or medicine, information a patient should tell a doctor before starting the drug, how a patient should take the drug, how a patient should store the drug, what a patient should avoid while taking the drug, the side effects of the drug, other information about the ailment of which the patient is taking the drugs for, the ingredients of the drug, and general information about the safe and effective use of the drug. A MedGuide contains text, which may be stored as a text computer file.
CHR additional content means drug monograph and MedGuide information associated with a medicine.
CHR content means content associated with a patient resulting from applying criteria to the patient's prescription, the patient's master record, or the prescription label print file (defined below).
CHR content may include (1) patient specific information such as, that patient's CID, (2) information concerning products related to a drug which the patient has purchased or for which the patient has received a prescription, or a government warning relating to drugs associated in any way with the patient, (3) information relating to patient health (represented in both text and graphic formats), (4) a news item selected for presentation to the patient, (5) incentive offers for printing in the form of bar coded coupons for discounts off purchase of specified products, or instant discounts applicable against the price or a product in a subsequent purchase by the consumer, typically for health related products, and typically products related to a disease associated with the patient based upon pharmacy product purchase data in the patient's data record.
CHR content may in theory also include, although such inclusion may be prohibited by privacy regulations, the patient's name, address, telephone number, and email address, the patient's doctors appointments reminders, the patient's doctor's name, address, telephone number, and email address, the patient's billing information such as patient's insurance policy identifier.
A prescription label print file herein means a file transmitted to a printer for printing a prescription label for prescription.
A prescription label print job herein means a set of commands to be executed by a printer to print in response to receipt by the printer of a prescription label print file, wherein the prescription label print file does not include CHR content or CHR additional content, but does include a reference to such content, and the prescription label print job include printing of CHR content and CHR additional content referenced by the prescription label print file.